Restaurant Day Montreal, August 2015

Start with the planning

Coffee and cakes at the docks, treats from the trunk of a van, a six-course dinner in your living room – what does your own ideal restaurant look and taste like? The more fun the concept, the more happy customers it will attract. Just try to think of a restaurant that you personally would love.

Location is key. In the summertime, favorite spots have included parks, courtyards and street corners. In the winter, Restaurant Day lovers have gathered in homes, offices and other indoor spaces.

Reach your customers

When you have picked a place and planned the menu, come up with a snappy name that sums up your concept, decide on opening hours, and register your pop-up on the Restaurant Day map with the hashtag #RestaurantDay.

Remember also to tell your friends and network about your upcoming restaurant. You can use your social media channels to spread the word further. Please create also a Facebook event for your pop-up and send it to us on the Restaurant Day Facebook page at www.facebook.com/restaurantday and your local Restaurant Day Facebook page or group.

Be prepared for action

Ask your friends to help out, you will most likely need a hand. Running a pop-up restaurant is hard work. Working with a team is more efficient, and also more fun.

Reserve enough time for preparing your food, have sufficient cold or hot storage space where needed, and plan in advance for possible surprises. Are you able to keep the food hot for enough time? Try to be realistic with the amount of people you are able to serve. It is also good to have a weather plan. The easiest way to start is to host a pop-up restaurant at your home where you have everything needed readily at hand.

Please remember to take everything you brought with you and leave no trash behind.

Share your experience

Restaurant Day is run by volunteers and based on autonomous action. If you have questions regarding running a restaurant or want to share your experiences with likeminded people from all over the world, we suggest you strike up a conversation on the Restaurant Day Ambassadors Group, which is followed by other restaurateurs.

Please note that this website serves solely to gather and share information on listed restaurants. As a restaurateurs, you are personally responsible for all actions related to running your restaurant.

Join our rapidly growing international network of local voluntary ambassadors to help Restaurant Day bloom in your city. The job is not a difficult one, but greatly rewarding and appreciated. With your help, crazy restaurant concepts can come to life and the food carnival can flourish in your area.

To join the movement, continue to the Restaurant Day Ambassadors Facebook group and tell a little about yourself and why you find Restaurant Day interesting. In the group you can share ideas, get help and connect with hundreds of likeminded food enthusiasts across the world (and most likely in your own city too)!

Kindly note that Restaurant Day is a voluntary initiative and hence no financial compensation will be paid for the ambassadors.

Go to Maplantis.com. Create a free account by clicking the Sign up button.

Add a new event. Remember to include #restaurantday in its description.

And you are done! Discover and share more interesting events on the map.

Concept

Restaurant Day is a worldwide food carnival and a movement that allows anyone to set up a restaurant, café or a bar.

During the first five years from May 2011 to May 2016 Restaurant Day was celebrated four time a year. From May 2016 every day is Restaurant Day and pop-up restaurants can be opened and local food carnivals can happen anytime and anywhere: at your home, at the office, on a street corner, in your garden or inner courtyard, at a park, or on the beach – only your imagination is the limit.

Restaurant Day’s birthday is celebrated annually with a big global food carnival every third Saturday of May.

Facts

Restaurant Day is the world’s largest food carnival. During the first five years of quarterly global food carnivals all together over 27 000 pop-up restaurants by over 100 000 restaurateurs have catered for over 3 million customers in 75 countries.

2012: Best Event, Best of Helsinki vote by Helsinki City Tourism and Convention Bureau

2012: Best Mobile Service in Finland, award given by Teleforum

2013: Food Event of the Year in Denmark, chosen by Mat+Medier

2013: Social Media Event of the Year, award given by Some Awards Finland

2013: Production of the Year in Finland, award given by Arts and Culture Union Taku ry

2014: Finnish Travel Award, given by Finnish Fair Foundation

2014: Ruohonjuuri Award, given by Ruohonjuuri

2014: Consumer Act of the Year, award given by the Finnish Consumers Union

Quotes

Restaurant Day is exactly the sort of project that will define our future. Restaurant Day has inspired the city’s population to question how things are run and to experiment and put forward new ideas of how daily life might be improved in the future. — Jussi Pajunen, Mayor of Helsinki (Monocle’s city survey on Helsinki in the May 2012 issue)

Restaurant Day has probably affected Finnish restaurant culture more than anything else since the new alcohol legislation of 1969 when beer was allowed to be sold in supermarkets. — Paavo Arhinmäki, Minister of Education and Culture (The speech for Finland Prize)

Restaurant Day changes Helsinki’s profile by placing the people in the center. Restaurant Day is new and surprising. It is culture by the people for the people. — Anni Sinnemäki, Head of the Library and Cultural Committee, City of Helsinki & Ex-minister of Labour (The speech for Cultural Event of the Year award)

Restaurant Day is a prime example of how food can give birth to a new type of communality.” — Johanna Mäkelä, professor of Food Culture, University of Helsinki (Helsingin Sanomat newspaper Jan 3 2012)

Organization

The real heroes of Restaurant Day are the thousands of fun loving people setting up and enjoying amazing pop-up restaurants. However, a group of volunteers is helping everything run smoothly in the background. The event is facilitated by an association created by the Restaurant Day team. The members of board are Timo Santala, Kirsti Tuominen, Antti Tuomola and Jyrki Vanamo.

Press photos

The Restaurant Day photos can be used free of charge ONLY as part of journalistic communication about Restaurant Day and with a single right of publication. All other use must be negotiated separately with the photographer. The photographers name and Restaurant Day MUST be credited alongside the published photo in all cases. The names of the people, the photo captions and the photographer information can be found on the metadata. Photos must not be cropped or edited in any way that might change the main composition of the photo.

In the case of print publication two copies of each magazine or newspaper MUST be sent to Restaurant Day, Mäntymäentie 2, 00250, Helsinki, Finland. In the case of web publication a link to the photos MUST be sent to timo.santala@restaurantday.org.

If these rules of conduct are not fulfilled and these photos are published against this license, a fee of usage of 200€ (+VAT24%) per photo will be billed. These rules of conduct are legally binding and by publishing any of these photos you agree to this license.

For licensing any other than journalistic use, please contact the photographer directly.

Logo

Discover the most interesting restaurants near you. View the restaurants on a map or filter them on a list. Bookmark your favorites and plan your journey in advance.

Find restaurants

Restaurant Day is created by thousands of people organizing and visiting pop-up restaurants worldwide. The idea is to have fun, share new food experiences and enjoy our common living environments together.

Pop-up restaurants can be opened and local food carnivals can happen anytime and anywhere. List yours on the Restaurant Day map or check out what’s there to eat near you. Restaurant Day is facilitated by a team of volunteers who also maintain this website. All restaurateurs are personally responsible for all actions related to running their restaurants.

Restaurant Day’s birthday is celebrated annually with a big global food carnival every third Saturday of May. That’s the day when we all open pop-up restaurants together worldwide.